Political correctness murdered education for me

When I was a freshman, I took the course, “Groups at Risk,” to fulfill a core class.  About a month in, we were learning about common feminist rhetoric such as the wage gap, the patriarchy, and rape culture. Needless to say, more women than men attended this class, and despite countless articles proving these things as myths, they were treated as facts in class. Fast forward one year later, I was in my dorm’s study room, and overheard a man talking about his sociology class. His professor had made his entire lecture write a 3-page essay on white privilege, and this reminded me of the lack of discussion in classes like these.

Think for a moment, what are the positions of an incredibly powerful institution that shapes the future leaders’ perspectives? And just who are in positions of power in this institution? Universities and higher education are places that shape the minds of millennials growing into the world of adulthood, and they are taught by professors through discussions and assignments. While the professors from the beginning do acknowledge that they encourage students to discuss, the courses’ questions and assignments generally tend to prove otherwise. For example, in my Groups at Risk class, I remember the professor asking the class, “Can you think of the ways patriarchy exists in our day-to-day lives?” In order to answer his question, you would have to already agree that patriarchy exists.

“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum.” – Noam Chomsky

Because Rutgers University is such a large school, I asked fellow students about their experiences with social justice classes. I was not surprised to find out my experience was similar, but due to the sensitivity of the issue on social justice, they asked to be anonymous to avoid backlash.

One student, who I will address as SZ, told me two years ago, during the time Michael Brown sparked the fire to the Black Lives Matter movement, her professor started a class discussion on, “Why are so many white officers killing innocent men of color?” The professor, she recounted, was extremely dismissive when she tried to bring up the fact that more white men were shot dead by police officers than African American men, attempting to change the question every time she gave a counter argument. 

Another fellow Scarlet Knight, who I will address as TK, told me of his race relations class. According to his professor, “I am privileged to have all of the things I have because I am white. Meanwhile, I moved to this country 11 years ago and worked very hard to get to where I am today.” TK mentioned how social justice classes are not just simply echo chambers, but do not value academic quality due to the informal way they are taught. He reached this conclusion after, “Weekly discussions on articles from Buzzfeed that were extremely opinionated and sometimes just outright false and spreading misinformation.” 

My sophomore year dorm hall acquaintance referred to as TF, told me this does not only happen in social justice classes. “One geography teacher spent a whole lecture on the wage gap, and couldn’t do simple math to prove it and told some students to leave who disagreed.” Even more astonishing was his professor’s comment in a different class, “Women have it harder in engineering and anybody who disagrees is automatically sexist; this happened in an engineering professionalism class.”

The following are accounts from students, who wanted to tell me the most bizarre things their professors had said or done in lectures:

“CS professor was teaching a command line prompt called ‘man’ and took the time to explain it wasn’t meant to be sexist.”

“My professor said, ‘Psychologists are sexist,’ when I explained the psychological differences between men and women.”

“Professor told us that anyone who voted for Trump is a fascist NAZI and that we should travel to William Patterson University to hear his lecture on, ‘The New Bigot.'”

“‘Only white people can be racist,’ in a sociology class.”

Classes allowing only certain discussion do not deliver the academic promise of expanded worldview and higher learning. Classes that demonize students for having different opinions have no place in an institution that promises to improve the minds of young adults. The stringent idea of permitting only certain opinions to be vocalized is the reason why so many innocent things have been deemed as racist, sexist, homophobic etc. Nothing in higher education should be safe from criticism, and this goes for opinions that are deemed nonconventional and offensive, too. Professors should be encouraging open discussion from the opposite side to improve debate, rationalization, and public speaking, not hinder it.

The politically correct culture has made free speech and discussion an enigma in the western world. We live in a society where violent criminals are permitted with freedom to publicly defend themselves in court. It is a sad day for academics when a large institution discourages an 18-year-old girl from criticizing Islam, a 20-year-old boy from questioning feminism, and outright demonizes people who voted for the Republican candidate.